Marine - Species - Red Drum

Abundance of Species

Most red drum caught in the SCDNR trammel net survey are between 9 and 30 inches (the current slot is 15-23 inches) and are younger than 4 years old. Therefore, abundance presented here is heavily influenced by successful recruitment. Bigger fish become mature and move into deeper waters, where they might live for 20 or 30 years. A separate long-line survey is used to study these older fish.

Additional Graph Information

Graphs of abundance show relative annual abundance in South Carolina waters based on surveys conducted by the SC Department of Natural Resources.

Abundance is presented relative to the average of the 10 most recent years. Unlike graphs of the recreational and commercial fisheries catch, the abundance graphs use survey data that have been standardized to allow direct comparison among years.

The horizontal dotted lines above or below the "10 year average" represent one "standard deviation" unit, which is a measure of how variable the annual data are around the 10-year average. In general, the area between one standard deviation above the mean and one standard deviation below the average includes approximately 68% of the values. Approximately 95% percent of observations in the data set are found within two standard deviations of the average.